Welcome

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is widely recognized as a literary innovator, an author who remade the novel into a finely tuned genre of psychological realism. She is celebrated for her deftly-drawn characters, witty dialogue, engaging heroines, and scenes of English country life—not for the political and social reform agendas embraced by many Jacobin novelists of her generation. In this course, we’ll read Austen’s novels against and through popular works by her contemporaries Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, and Amelia Opie. By setting Austen among her contemporaries, we’ll consider how she adopts and deploys existing genres and modes; how she handles pressing social concerns from slavery to social inequality; and how her novels fit within the larger literary landscape of her day. To better gage Austen’s reputation in her own time and her continued appeal in our own, we’ll complement the novels with contemporary periodical reviews, excerpts from correspondence, and film adaptations.